A Bibliography of
the Books and Journalism of
Peter Fryer

Despite the political slant of what follows – a marked departure from the other pages on my site – I have to confess that its compilation has been one of my more pleasurable undertakings for Scissors & Paste Bibliographies.

It’s not altogether surprising that the first of Peter’s books I encountered was Private Case – Public Scandal, to which my attention had been drawn by the late Gershon Legman. At 160 pages it’s not a long book, and I read it, appropriately, in the British Library, at one sitting. Despite it’s brevity, I was impressed by the amount of information Peter had managed to include. Furthermore it was reliable and written with wit and a fine sense of irony, qualities not commonly associated with books dealing with erotic literature.

Private Case – Public Scandal was almost certainly the single biggest factor in the decision made by the British Library to abandon a century of secrecy and finally include their erotica in the General Catalogue. It was also what spurred me to try and catalogue their collection, a project that resulted about ten years later with The Private Case (London: Jay Landesman, 1981).

Several other books touch on my interests and will be easily recognised, but I have to say that Hungarian Tragedy, which I was only able to read toward the end of 2001 (on a Socialist website in Norway of all places), and the more recent Staying Power both proved to be extremely educational, and I have little doubt that Peter’s other books that I’ve yet to read will prove of equal interest and value.

Peter’s initial reaction to my suggestion that I compile a bibliography of his works was not what might be called enthusiastic, but after I sent him a draft of what I was able to pull together from the usual sources – the online catalogues of The British Library, the Bibliothéque Nationale, the Kinsey Institute, &c. – he warmed to the idea, and the credit for much of the bibliography must more properly be given to him.

Entries are arranged chronologically by date of first publication, under five headings: Separately published works; Contributions to periodicals etc. (omitting writing published in daily newspapers and, with four exceptions, in weeklies); Editions; Translations; and Anthologies.

Reprinted from The Newsletter, I/32 (14 December 1957), pp. 255–9. The ETU was the Electrical Trades Union; the national headquarters of the British Communist Party were situated in King Street, Covent Garden, London.

The text of the speech that would have been delivered to the British Communist Party’s 25th (Special) Congress (1957) if an appeal against expulsion to the full Congress had been allowed. Reprinted in 4.

Review of: The Counter-Revolutionary Forces in the October Events in Hungary ([Budapest]: Information Bureau of the Council of Ministers of the Hungarian People’s Republic, [1957]); Basil Davidson, What Really Happened in Hungary? A Personal Record (London: Union of Democratic Control, 1957); George Mikes, The Hungarian Revolution (London: André Deutsch, 1957); Wictor Woroszylski, Diary of a Revolt: Budapest through Polish Eyes, [translated by Michael Segal] (London: M. Segal and Clive K. Jenkins, [1957]); and National Communism and Popular Revolt in Eastern Europe: A Selection of Documents on Events in Poland and Hungary, February–November 1956, edited by Paul E. Zinner (New York: Columbia University Press; London: Oxford University Press; 1956). Reprinted in 4.

71. A Map of The Underground: The Flower Power Structure & London Scene. Encounter, XXIX/4 (October 1967), pp. 6–20.

72. [Untitled contribution]. In: Authors take sides on Vietnam. Two questions on the war in Vietnam answered by the authors of several nations. Edited by Cecil Woolf and John Bagguley (London: Peter Owen, 1967), p. 27.

Review of James Klugmann, History of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Vol. I: Formation and Early Years, 1919–1924 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1968); Vol. II: The General Strike (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1969).

82. The history of English racism – Part I [II]. The Ethical Record, XCIII/3 (March 1988), pp. 3–6; XCIII/4 (April 1988), pp. 18–22.

Text of a lecture given to the South Place Ethical Society on 17 January 1988.

83. [Review of About Turn. The British Communist Party and the Second World War.] Revolutionary History, III/4 (Autumn 1991), pp. 32–3.

The book under review contained the verbatim record of meetings of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain on 25 September and 2–3 October 1939. Edited by Francis King and George Matthews, and with an introduction by Monty Johnstone, it was published in London by Lawrence and Wishart, 1990.

85. Engels: A Man of His Time. In: The condition of Britain: Essays on Frederick Engels, edited by John Lea and Geoff Pilling (London and East Haven, Conn.: Pluto Press, 1996), pp. 128–60.

86. Tom Kemp (1921–1993): What he wrote and how he wrote it. [By] Peter Fryer and Michael Kemp. In: History, economic history and the future of Marxism. Essays in Memory of Tom Kemp (1921–1993), edited by Terry Brotherstone and Geoff Pilling (London: Porcupine Press, 1996), pp. 351–61.

Reprinted from Workers Press, 9 May 1987, 10 March 1990, and 20 May 1995. The third of these‘personal columns’ was a review of Opening the Books: Essays on the Social and Cultural History of British Communism, edited by Geoff Andrews, Nina Fishman, and Kevin Morgan (London and Boulder, Colo.: Pluto, 1995). The‘evasive historian’ was Eric Hobsbawm, C.H.

III. Editions

Acton’s Prostitution, considered in its moral, social & sanitary aspects, in London and other large cities: with proposals for the mitigation and prevention of its attendant evils, was first published at London by John Churchill in 1857; the above was an abridgement of the second, greatly expanded edition: Prostitution, considered in its moral, social, and sanitary aspects, in London and other large cities and garrison towns: with proposals for the control and prevention of its attendant evils (London: John Churchill, 1870).

V. Anthologies

99. Venus unmasked, or, An inquiry into the nature and origin of the passion of love, interspersed with curious and entertaining accounts of several modern amours: an eighteenth-century anthology, edited by Peter Fryer and Leonard de Vries. London: Barker, 1967. 8vo. pp. 268. Illustrations, facsimiles and bibliography. BL: YK.1993.a.3308.

100. Venus unmasked, or, An inquiry into the nature and origin of the passion of love, interspersed with curious and entertaining accounts of several modern amours: an eighteenth-century anthology, edited by Peter Fryer and Leonard de Vries. New York: Stein and Day, 1968. 8vo. pp. 228. Illustrations, facsimiles. Library of Congress: HQ461. V8 1967a.

101. Venus unmasked, or, An inquiry into the nature and origin of the passion of love, compiled by Leonard de Vries and Peter Fryer. London: New English Library, 1968. 8vo. pp. 176. No. 2247 of the New English library paperbacks. [I am indebted to Keith Mitchell for drawing my attention to this reprint, of which I was unaware.]

103. The Man of Pleasure’s Companion. A Nineteenth Century Anthology of Amorous Entertainment. Compiled by Peter Fryer. London: New English Library, 1969. 8vo. pp. 173. No. 2514 of the New English library paperbacks. BL: YK.1993.a.4002.